Sexuality is one of the most under-addressed clinical topics in addiction recovery. Substance use shapes sexual experience, behavior, identity, and relationships in ways that don't resolve when the substance use stops. RECO Intensive's confidential sexual-issues group provides the dedicated clinical space the topic requires.
What this group looks like at RECO Intensive
The group meets weekly, is facilitated by a licensed clinician with specific training in sexuality and intimacy work in addiction recovery, and operates under strict confidentiality. Group members also agree to confidentiality with each other. The room is structured for safety — pace is each client's own, and listening for weeks before sharing is welcome.
Group composition is typically split by gender or further by identity considerations, to create safer therapeutic environments for the material.
What the group works on
- Sexual functioning changes in early recovery — desire, arousal, performance
- Sex while using vs. sober sex — relearning intimacy without substances
- Compulsive sexual behavior patterns and their relationship to addiction
- Sexual trauma history and its intersection with substance use
- Partner relationships and rebuilding intimacy
- Sexual identity questions surfacing in sobriety
- Healthy sexuality as part of long-term recovery
Who this group serves best
Clients whose substance use intertwined with sexual behavior or sexual trauma. Clients in partner relationships needing to rebuild intimacy in sobriety. Clients with compulsive sexual patterns alongside substance use. Clients whose sexual identity questions surface in recovery. Anyone for whom the topic has been off-limits in previous treatment.
How this integrates with the rest of treatment
Material from this group feeds individual therapy and partner-therapy work where applicable. Coordination with psychiatric medication management is significant — many addiction-recovery medications affect sexual functioning, and that affects engagement with this work.
Why the RECO approach is different
Many treatment programs avoid sexuality as a clinical topic. We treat it as a core part of comprehensive addiction care — because clients leaving treatment without sexual functioning addressed often relapse around exactly that material a few months out.